I first started slamming China Finance Online (NASDAQ: JRJC) on October 3, when I asked How can China Finance online possibly not be overvalued?

To me -- and Citron Research -- there was no possible way that the stock wasn't heinously overvalued. But for some odd reason, the Wall Street analysts just couldn't get enough of it. Brean Murray slapped a $35 target on the stock, while the more conservative JPMorgan valued it at $29, which is the same target as Standard & Poor's. What are/were they thinking?

Now the stock has pulled back to $13.28 from its high of over $47 a share -- which was reached, incidentally, the day that I first mentioned the company. Now investors who bought into the hype are left wondering what happened. Is China Finance Online a buy now? I seriously doubt it. The market cap is still around $300 million on pretty tiny revenue: $25 million in 2007. More than 10 times sales for a company that sells stock newsletters in China using a sales force of telemarketers. Is that a joke?

With China's stock market down more than 17% this year, you have to think that the enthusiasm for stock pick newsletters will be waning after the stock market mania that enveloped the country last year. Playing the stock market has a way of becoming less fun when you're losing money hand over first.

Even after the precipitous drop, I'd still give China Finance Online wide berth.

Why were analysts promoting China Finance Online? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.